New Pillows and a Makeover

Hello everyone!

This has been the ugliest week (weather wise) around here.  It has rained, and rained, and rained.  The ground is soggy, the sky is cloudy and I'm anxious for the sun to start shining again!  It really put a damper on our 4th of July celebration too.  Oh well, I guess I shouldn't complain because it really is insignificant compared to other problems in the world huh?  

I've tried to make the best of it around the house though.  One thing I wanted to share with you are a couple of new pillows that I purchased recently.  (Y'all KNOW I don't have enough pillows right????)

The first one is from Flax and Spindle.  It is a blog/online store all in one.  I recently discovered it and fell in love with this pillow cover.

It fits a standard pillow and is intended to lie horizontal, but I liked it propped up like this better.  It is made with vintage burlap and stamped with black letters.  I have no idea what it even says!  LOL!  I should probably Google it or something.

NOTE:  Just translated it and found out it means, "Care in Service". 

 

I love how it ties across the opening.

My next pillow is from Joss and Main.  I believe it is being offered right now too! It's made to look like grain sack. I can't tell you how well made this pillow is!  I really love it.

Regarding the makeover I did, I used this dark wooden container that looks like an old fashioned well bucket and painted it white.

So, now it looks like this.

I intentionally left it streaky looking so it wouldn't look too perfect. One coat is all I used.

I decided to place a bunch of baby's breath flowers in it and place it on my mantel.

I'm loving the white on white look with the texture of the small flowers. 

So, that about wraps up what I've been doing during this rainy week at my house. I'll share more fun finds with you once the sun decides to make an appearance again. 

Hope you all have a great weekend!

~ Kelly ~ 

My Perfectly Imperfect Coffee Table

Hello everyone!

For the longest time I've been contemplating painting my coffee table.  I had reservations though because I like it as it is.  But once the rug was removed from underneath it, I realized that I was finally ready.  

The coffee table blended in with the floor too much.  So, I decided to just paint the underside of the coffee table and leave the top (which is really old) alone. 

 

I painted it using the same white paint that I've used on other furniture pieces and then used a piece of sand paper to distress it heavily.
 

 

This was so easy to do and now I love it even more.

 

It contrasts with the floor and brings that farmhouse feel into the room that I love.

 

Hope you're having a good first week of July so far.  We are expecting a lot of rain unfortunately.  Not sure how that will affect our plans for the 4th of July.  We were hoping to spend time with some friends of ours at a firework show and eating out.  Guess mother nature has different plans for us.  We'll see!

Thanks for stopping by! 

~ Kelly ~

Linking to:  Wow-us-Wednesdays

Monogrammed Slipcovers

Hello everyone!

Well, I did it!  But not the way I set out to.  Remember when I bought the monograms at Hobby Lobby to use on my dining room slipcovers?  I was going to dye them grey first.  Well, I did do that, but they turned out shiny and smoke blue looking.  Not the color I intended.  

I realize that the picture above doesn't show the color that they looked like in natural light, but trust me when I say that it wasn't what I was going for.  

So, I tried bleaching one to see if that would turn out any better and it just turned a light shade of pink.  Now, I  was going completely in the wrong direction!  So, a blogger friend of mine suggested I paint them.  

So, that is what I did to get the color I wanted.

After painting them, I was happy because this is the grey that I wanted!

Since I painted them, I didn't iron them on.  I just used fabric glue again.  I may regret this because now I may have trouble washing these.  I may have to figure something out when that time comes.  Luckily, this room is seldom used though.  Also, my slipcovers were not custom made.  They are just basic store bought covers that I've had for many years.  So, I'm not going to lose sleep if this turns out to be a bad idea down the road.  

I decided to place them on the front instead.  It just looked like they belonged there instead of the back.

What do you think?  

I'm very happy with how they turned out!  I'm sure they're not perfect, but I knew they wouldn't be since I didn't have these done professionally anyway.

And speaking of imperfection........

In my next post, I will show you something I did to a piece of furniture that is perfectly imperfect!!!!  And that is why I love it even more.  Stay tuned............

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kelly ~

Embroidered Monograms

Hello everyone!

I really love the look of embroidered monograms but can't always have them done the professional way.  You either need a special machine or have someone do it for you.  I wanted the look without the inconvenience.  So, a trip to Hobby Lobby and a few dollars later bought me these.

You see, I've used these before.  I used them on some lampshades and loved how they turned out.  So, when I decided I wanted to monogram some other items in my house I knew these would work again.

I wanted to add a monogram to the little lavender filled sachets that Ann made me a while back.

I thought they would look good displayed in a bowl on my coffee table.  Since they were plain, I thought a monogram with my first letter initial would be pretty.

Here it is just lying on top of the sachet.  All I had to do was use a little fabric glue on the back of it and press it down.  Easy peasy!  These are iron on but I didn't trust the heat of the iron with the lavender inside.

Here they are on the coffee table.  (Please excuse the messy sofa in the background.)

See what a difference?  

Now, what about the "D"'s that I bought.  I plan on using them on the back of the dining room slipcovers.

Since these will need to be washed from time to time, I will iron these monograms on.  I am thinking I need to dye the monograms first though.  The white doesn't stand out very much.  I'm thinking of a soft grey color.  They sold black monograms, but I didn't want them that dark.

So, what do you think?  Do you love the ease of these iron on monograms as much as I do?  They can be glued on too if it isn't something you can iron on. There were several different fonts, sizes and colors available at  the store.  This could get addicting!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

~ Kelly ~

Summer Days

Hello everyone!

It's been quiet around here.  Not much new happening.  We've been enjoying the lazy days of summer and trying to stay cool in the process.  

Last weekend, we spent some time visiting friends at a campground on the lake.  It was a lot of fun.  We cooked out and made smores over a camp fire.  My oldest son even kayaked.  One couple brought their birds with them.  (They were camping there as well.)  We all got a chance to let it rest on our shoulder.  Her name was Angel and was very friendly!

As you can see I was a bit hesitant having it on my shoulder!  I'm not really a "bird" person. 

We all got the chance to hold him.

These pics were taken with my husbands iPhone so they aren't the best.  Sorry!

We've been spending time at the pool.

And eating out at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

We've caught a few good movies.

Man of Steel

World War Z

And............sleeping late. 

This is what I see most mornings, when I wake up.  No kidding!

 And take a look at what we saw in our neighbors yard the other morning.

That was an unexpected surprise!  We don't see a lot of deer in my subdivision.  She darted in those woods right after we took this picture.

So, how has summer been treating you so far? 

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Kelly~

Don't Do What I Did!

Hello everyone!

There is something missing from this room.  Can you spot it?

No?  

What about now?

Or now.

Did you guess?

If you guessed there is no rug in here, you would be right!!!

And why is there no rug in here (you ask)?

Because, when I noticed my dog created a hole in the sea grass (from playing tug of war with my husband) I picked it up to move it around and was horrified to see adhesive from the back of the rug stuck to my floors!  I should've taken a picture of it.  It was awful.  

So, out came the harsh chemicals after plain scraping and soapy water did not work.

It took me over 3 hours to remove the residue left behind from that rug!  I had to spray WD-40 on the floor and then scrape the gunk off as much as possible (careful not to scratch my floors).  Then after cleaning that up, there was a fine residue everywhere still left behind.  Basic scraping would not remove it.  So, Goof Off came to my rescue.  It is a powerful solvent meant to remove sticky stuff.  I was worried my floors would be ruined by it, but the residue left behind was already ruining it, so I didn't have much to lose.  

Voila!  everything came off!  It didn't take the finish off my floors either.

So...........now, I don't even want a rug in there anymore.  I actually like it better without one too.  It was a blessing in disguise I guess.

So.....where is the rug that caused all of this trouble in the first place?

Did I mention today was trash pick-up day?

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great weekend.

~ Kelly ~

Candlelight in the Summer

Hello everyone!

I've always loved candles.  I prefer simple white candles in a clear or frosted container or chunky pillars grouped together.  I love the ambiance that candles provide.  I also don't think they should be reserved for holidays only.

With it being too hot to burn a fire in the fireplace, I like to light candles instead.

I've placed several on my coffee table and mantel and really enjoy the soft light they put out.  

On the front porch, I placed my favorite lantern between the two rocking chairs.

We like to sit outside at night and listen to the sounds of crickets as the candle burns softly.  It fills the porch with soft light that only a candle can provide.

Do you like to burn candles in the summer too?  

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kelly ~

Linking to:  Wow-us-Wednesdays